The 1/10th idea. In honor of Spring.
A light-filled, lean post about insight and renewal.
There’s a real allure to the clarity and renewed energy offered by spring cleaning (your closet, clutter, or commitments).
What if you could take the same approach to your idea?
Yes, I mean that wonderful idea or thought that’s been brewing in your head, and getting you excited.
You may have found yourself turning it over and around in your mind, jotting notes down, adding to it to create something special. Your lovely idea is building up, getting bigger (with the occasional spark of inspiration, or even butterfly in your stomach), and may even be feeling a bit unwieldy.
There are so many exciting parts and possibilities to your idea, now that you’ve devoted energy to it. Yet, you’ve gotten that inkling that it's time to pare back or streamline with an editor’s eye.
But that’s easier said than done, because you’re attached to your creativity (and your creation), and taking out a word, paragraph, or option here and there doesn’t quite seem enough.
This is the moment to try the 1/10th idea.
Ask yourself, what would it look like to save (and savor) the best 10% of the idea. Yep, 10% in the save pile, and 90% in the discard pile.
And yes, it’s as radical, disarming, and freeing as it sounds on paper.
What if you told 1/10th of the story? Shared 1/10th of the message? Or taught 1/10th of what you planned to teach this week?
What would that look like, and what new focus, possibilities, or fresh insights would emerge? For you, and for your audience?
What new world could open up?
Share with me here. I’d love to know.
Inspiration for this week’s post: The Eames Office, 1977, 9 minute film, Powers of Ten. It’s a whole new world, when you change your perspective, by powers of ten. The first half of the film is about scaling up. Around minute 6, it’s about scaling down. While I’ve never seen the film mentioned directly in Stanford d.school materials, I know d.school prompts participants to scale a design up (or down) by 10.